Gumi's Birthday!
Sorry for disappearing - I've been having a nasty bout of illness that manifested as aching pains in my arms similar to RSI, which made any amount of lengthy typing kind of suck.
It also means we managed to nearly miss Gumi's birthday, but now that we've had a day or so buffer it means I can talk about her birthday songs instead - where 'birthday song' is 'pretty much every Gumi song on my shortlist from the last two weeks'. Truth be told, I'm a little underwhelmed by the Gumi selection this birthday so far - people are still posting videos for it but the tag hasn't done well on views, which is a great shame and I think it could do with a little more exposure.
Today's post, then, is all Gumi all the time, and if you want to go through linking any stuff I might have missed from the tag or from the last couple of weeks, please go straight ahead. The rest of the catchup - together with a million and one MMD videos - will be tomorrow or Wednesday as time permits.
GUMI extend βサンプル
Obviously the big news of the week, we finally have side-to-side comparisons of each of the Gumi Extend voices. As you'd probably expect if you're a regular reader, I vastly prefer Power and Adult over Whisper and Sweet, as the latter two really feel far too wispy and gentle; to be absolutely honest, I'm not sure I like any of them more than the already very good base set. All I'd really like to see is a substantial upgrade to the standard voicebank for VOCALOID3 and I'd be happy to run with that.
【GUMI extend】 祭囃子 【オリジナル！】
Festival Band (buzzG, Gumi, Rock)
BuzzG has it good - when he isn't topping Vocaloid charts, he's got almost exclusive access to Gumi Extend and the Power voicebank to produce tracks for his upcoming album and throw out some of the best demo tracks around. A solid rock song, with some excellent voice work, and a great full-length introduction to the Extend voice.
【GUMI】 Wish 【オリジナル】
Wish (Eon, Gumi, Ambient Pop)
What a lovely Gumi song! I very nearly passed this over, and it would have been criminal of me to do so. A soft and gentle piece of largely ambient work, this is mostly notable for being really original work, at least as far as Gumi's concerned. I can't remember when I've heard something quite so soothing and gentle from her, and then she starts harmonizing with herself and the whole thing becomes absolutely lovely.
【GUMI】Little Garden【オリジナル】
Little Garden (Fade Into Color, Gumi, Ambient Pop)
As if that weren't enough, we've a second one right on the horizon. Fade Into Color are rapidly establishing themselves as a circle with their recent album headed up by yorunoyasha, a veteran Vocaloid and Utau producer. Little Garden is a beautiful piece of ambient piano with a gentle, drifting feel and an entire circuitboard of vibroscopes going on in the background.
【GUMI】夏の風と、キミと私と麦わら帽子。【オリジナルPV】
Summer Wind, You and I and a Straw Hat (maya, Gumi, Rock)
Damn. I was all prepared to write this song off as little more than a platform for moe Gumi summer faces, but then the guitars and piano started up properly and I was hooked. A truly scorching guitar solo is bookended by some great Gumi rock here, and I think like many of the tracks this week it's been a little hard done by on viewcount.
【GUMI】キミ想い、片想い【オリジナル】
Your Desires, Unrequited Love (takanon, Gumi, Pop)
One of the more substantially successful videos from Gumi's birthday, this is a straight-up pop song with far more than its fair share of doo-wop. I'm perhaps a little baffled by the measure of views it's had but can't really fault the track in any way either; it's good, just not stellar. That said, I particularly liked the guitars and the aforementioned doo-woppin'.
【GUMI】誕生日、ペペロンチーノにやさしくされる【オリジナル曲】
Be Kind, Birthday Peperoncino (ie no ura etc. etc., Gumi, Rock)
I'm not quite sure whether I should even grace this silly, silly song with a description. ie no ura extremely long name returns with yet another, uh, striking track that might be more orthodox in style than the rest of his offerings but is at least pretty much as batshit as the others in concept. A little bit minimalistic in terms of sound, perhaps, but still a decent listen.
【GUMI】Gear【オリジナル】
Gear (noa+, Gumi, Emo Rock)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas has really given me a solid appreciation for dumb emo rock tracks the past few weeks, as I've been looping their album near constantly whenever I've got a particularly niggly problem to solve at work. As such, I'm considerably more inclined towards this shifting, changable track than I otherwise would be. Primarily hard, fast rock with some good bits of crescendo and a lot of random hooks into other styles.
【GUMI】 A.E.V.P(アンチエモいボカロP) 【オリジナル・PV】
A.E.V.P. (basudora, Gumi, Thrash)
Standing for 'Anti-Emotional Vocaloid Producer', and this song certainly seems to live up to the name. Almost diametrically opposite on the scale compared to Gear - even if I'm not sure which scale, exactly - this is a heavy thrashing metal track with occasional sidelines into pop dancing or energetic, tuneful choruses. I can't make up my mind on the track as a whole - frequently it's simply too much for me, but then it demands I like it.
【GUMI】クラリティ【オリジナル】
Clarity (INOSON, Gumi, Pop)
Who says Miku gets to have the monopoly on dumb cheery pop? Well, no-one at all - especially with the advent of 40m and Deco*27 - but still, it's a little unusual to see a track quite this traditionally Miku end up in Gumi's hands past the rock and the angst. Clarity is a cheesy, straight-laced pop song with a reasonably catchy chorus and a nice set of floaty synth tones throughout; it's not groundbreaking but is a fun song with a light tone.
【GUMI・鏡音リン】 ブラックホールアーティスト 【オリジナル】
Black Hole Artist (鬱, Gumi + Rin, ?!?!)
And if A.E.V.P. wasn't too much for you, then this is Hard Mode - a staggering track full of extremely angry sections, crazy stares, a grey-haired Gumi, endless hoarse screaming, the works. It's enjoying some measure of success since going up all of today, but I fully expect this to be a distinctly acquired taste. If you can, stick it out until the choruses for some excellent Gumi / Rin duet action.
It also means we managed to nearly miss Gumi's birthday, but now that we've had a day or so buffer it means I can talk about her birthday songs instead - where 'birthday song' is 'pretty much every Gumi song on my shortlist from the last two weeks'. Truth be told, I'm a little underwhelmed by the Gumi selection this birthday so far - people are still posting videos for it but the tag hasn't done well on views, which is a great shame and I think it could do with a little more exposure.
Today's post, then, is all Gumi all the time, and if you want to go through linking any stuff I might have missed from the tag or from the last couple of weeks, please go straight ahead. The rest of the catchup - together with a million and one MMD videos - will be tomorrow or Wednesday as time permits.
GUMI extend βサンプル
Obviously the big news of the week, we finally have side-to-side comparisons of each of the Gumi Extend voices. As you'd probably expect if you're a regular reader, I vastly prefer Power and Adult over Whisper and Sweet, as the latter two really feel far too wispy and gentle; to be absolutely honest, I'm not sure I like any of them more than the already very good base set. All I'd really like to see is a substantial upgrade to the standard voicebank for VOCALOID3 and I'd be happy to run with that.
【GUMI extend】 祭囃子 【オリジナル！】
Festival Band (buzzG, Gumi, Rock)
BuzzG has it good - when he isn't topping Vocaloid charts, he's got almost exclusive access to Gumi Extend and the Power voicebank to produce tracks for his upcoming album and throw out some of the best demo tracks around. A solid rock song, with some excellent voice work, and a great full-length introduction to the Extend voice.
【GUMI】 Wish 【オリジナル】
Wish (Eon, Gumi, Ambient Pop)
What a lovely Gumi song! I very nearly passed this over, and it would have been criminal of me to do so. A soft and gentle piece of largely ambient work, this is mostly notable for being really original work, at least as far as Gumi's concerned. I can't remember when I've heard something quite so soothing and gentle from her, and then she starts harmonizing with herself and the whole thing becomes absolutely lovely.
【GUMI】Little Garden【オリジナル】
Little Garden (Fade Into Color, Gumi, Ambient Pop)
As if that weren't enough, we've a second one right on the horizon. Fade Into Color are rapidly establishing themselves as a circle with their recent album headed up by yorunoyasha, a veteran Vocaloid and Utau producer. Little Garden is a beautiful piece of ambient piano with a gentle, drifting feel and an entire circuitboard of vibroscopes going on in the background.
【GUMI】夏の風と、キミと私と麦わら帽子。【オリジナルPV】
Summer Wind, You and I and a Straw Hat (maya, Gumi, Rock)
Damn. I was all prepared to write this song off as little more than a platform for moe Gumi summer faces, but then the guitars and piano started up properly and I was hooked. A truly scorching guitar solo is bookended by some great Gumi rock here, and I think like many of the tracks this week it's been a little hard done by on viewcount.
【GUMI】キミ想い、片想い【オリジナル】
Your Desires, Unrequited Love (takanon, Gumi, Pop)
One of the more substantially successful videos from Gumi's birthday, this is a straight-up pop song with far more than its fair share of doo-wop. I'm perhaps a little baffled by the measure of views it's had but can't really fault the track in any way either; it's good, just not stellar. That said, I particularly liked the guitars and the aforementioned doo-woppin'.
【GUMI】誕生日、ペペロンチーノにやさしくされる【オリジナル曲】
Be Kind, Birthday Peperoncino (ie no ura etc. etc., Gumi, Rock)
I'm not quite sure whether I should even grace this silly, silly song with a description. ie no ura extremely long name returns with yet another, uh, striking track that might be more orthodox in style than the rest of his offerings but is at least pretty much as batshit as the others in concept. A little bit minimalistic in terms of sound, perhaps, but still a decent listen.
【GUMI】Gear【オリジナル】
Gear (noa+, Gumi, Emo Rock)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas has really given me a solid appreciation for dumb emo rock tracks the past few weeks, as I've been looping their album near constantly whenever I've got a particularly niggly problem to solve at work. As such, I'm considerably more inclined towards this shifting, changable track than I otherwise would be. Primarily hard, fast rock with some good bits of crescendo and a lot of random hooks into other styles.
【GUMI】 A.E.V.P(アンチエモいボカロP) 【オリジナル・PV】
A.E.V.P. (basudora, Gumi, Thrash)
Standing for 'Anti-Emotional Vocaloid Producer', and this song certainly seems to live up to the name. Almost diametrically opposite on the scale compared to Gear - even if I'm not sure which scale, exactly - this is a heavy thrashing metal track with occasional sidelines into pop dancing or energetic, tuneful choruses. I can't make up my mind on the track as a whole - frequently it's simply too much for me, but then it demands I like it.
【GUMI】クラリティ【オリジナル】
Clarity (INOSON, Gumi, Pop)
Who says Miku gets to have the monopoly on dumb cheery pop? Well, no-one at all - especially with the advent of 40m and Deco*27 - but still, it's a little unusual to see a track quite this traditionally Miku end up in Gumi's hands past the rock and the angst. Clarity is a cheesy, straight-laced pop song with a reasonably catchy chorus and a nice set of floaty synth tones throughout; it's not groundbreaking but is a fun song with a light tone.
【GUMI・鏡音リン】 ブラックホールアーティスト 【オリジナル】
Black Hole Artist (鬱, Gumi + Rin, ?!?!)
And if A.E.V.P. wasn't too much for you, then this is Hard Mode - a staggering track full of extremely angry sections, crazy stares, a grey-haired Gumi, endless hoarse screaming, the works. It's enjoying some measure of success since going up all of today, but I fully expect this to be a distinctly acquired taste. If you can, stick it out until the choruses for some excellent Gumi / Rin duet action.